Tuesday, November 11, 2008

{TWD} Kugelhopf

Kugel-what??? Last week Rugelach this week Kugelhopf. I think I need a dictionary! :)I have a lot of friends that are all about purging and getting rid of "Stuff". In April we were working on getting our house ready to put on the market and were trying to purge our outdated, unused items. I had these things in my utensil drawer I had never used before and had no clue what to use them for. So, like any good purger I got rid of them with a bunch of other utensils I have never used before. Turns out those corkscrew looking things I had never used before were the dough hooks for my Sunbeam mixer. In April I wasn't baking...at all. I take that back, I was baking as long as it came out of a box and took very little preparation.

Yesterday I read the recipe for Kugelhopf (spellcheck wants to put in Bellhop instead of Kugelhopf right here) and saw the part where you are supposed to use a dough hook. I got on my trusty Google to find out exactly what a dough hook is. Yeah...I was pretty ticked that I got rid of my dough hooks. That hurts for a packrat that holds onto everything "just in case".

The recipe did say you could do this with a wooden spoon as well so I was only worried about how much my arm was going to to hurt from mixing with a wooden spoon.

The process was long but worthwhile. I used chocolate chips instead of raisins since my family is anti-raisin. Once I got everything mixed I set it out on top of my stove to double in size. It didn't seem to double and it was really sticky. Once it was in the fridge though it started to rise and finally after sitting on the top of the stove again for 3 hours it was ready to bake.

I am not sure it rose as much as it was supposed to and my "unmolding process" took a turn for the worse. It completely broke apart when I was trying to get it out of the pan. Before it was even cool my kids were at my side asking for a piece. Munchkin's first question was "It doesn't have any fruit in it right?". I told her it didn't and before I could even get a piece for me she was back for a second piece. Little Man downed his piece quickly. Bobby had some when he got home and texted me a "yummy" message. So this was a hit in our house but it was really time consuming. A great recipe for a day when you don't have much going on.

Thanks to Landa of The All Purpose Girl for the recipe selection this week. You should be able to find the entire recipe on her site. Make sure to check out Tuesdays with Dorie to see how over 300 other bakers fared.

LOL about the bellhop/kugelhopf spellecheck thing. Sorry about the dough hook! But I bet it felt really "authentic" doing it by hand! Chocolate chips sound great -- why didn't I think of that? I'm glad you and your family enjoyed it! This was so much work that I think I warned mine ahead of time to fake it if they didn't like it! :-)

Oh man! I feel your pain. I am a packrat "I can throw it away I might need it someday" mantra too. Props to you for doing it sans mixer. I bet the chocolate chips were a great sweet addition to this one. I should have done that...Clara @ iheartfood4thought

Chocolate saves everything. The family tasters make it all worthwhile too. Glad that worked for you. Perhaps there is a lone doughhook at your local goodwill or maybe we can make an appeal for it to come home....hehehe. Great Muscles though! Mine totally broke in half as I was trying to tap it out so, I have to triumph. I'm sure I'll try again. Happy Baking.AmyRuthThanks for stopping by. I appreciate your encouragement. : )